Small, front-end loaders are frequently used for small excavation cr grading operations. The typical loader includes a bucket terminating in a blade. The bucket is connected to the loader through a pair of lift arms, which are connected to the lower portion of the bucket, and a pair of tilt arms that are connected to the upper portion of the tucket. Through operation of the lift arms, the bucket can be raised and lowered, while operation of the tilt arms tends to tilt the bucket about the axis of the pivotal connection of the lift arms to the bucket to thereby either dump the bucket or move the blade downwardly in a position where the blade can engage the terrain for scraping operations.
After the terrain has been built up or leveled to the desire grade, it is often necessary to compact the soil through use of a separate, power-operated compactor. During compaction, the grade may change due to compaction of the soil, thereby requiring additional blade scraping to emitter fill the low areas or cut the high areas. Because of this, the contractor is required to use two separate and expensive pieces of equipment to accomplish the grading operation.
There has been a need for an inexpensive attachment for a front-end loader that can be selectively used for both grading and compaction, without the need of attaching or removing accessories.